Our first dinner party and Night at the Opera (Ballet De L'Opera)

Yesterday morning we went shopping at the Montorgeuil Market Street.  We picked up some eclairs at Stohrer Patisserie, which was opened by Louis XV's pastry chef in 1730!!  They are said to be the best in Paris.

The plaque beside Maison Shohrer Patisserie

After lunch at the apartment, we went for a walk in the 6th and shared a sorbet from Amorino - an excellent gelato and sorbet shop.  A few pics of the Seine and Alain and I.

Sorbet from Amorino

We then got ready for our first dinner party, with Ceta and Kay.  We made salmon on our induction stove top, had lots of rosé wine, and there were chocolates, eclairs and strawberries for desert.  We were joined by Ceta's friend Jess for desert.  Lots of fun and some great pics.  Still 23C and sunny!!!!

Kay and Ceta

The meal

Prepping food in our tiny kitchen

Kay, Ceta, Jess and Toby

Today (Thursday), we headed off to the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris to see two exhibits.  The first was a retrospective of Kees Van Dongen entitled Van Dongen: Fauve, anarchiste et mondain.  He was born near Rotterdam in 1877, moved to Paris in around 1897, and died in 1968 in Monaco.  A very talented painter and illustrator.  He joined the fauvist group (led by Matisse and Derain) in the early 1900s.  His use of colour was spectacular and the eyes of many of his mainly female subjects are very haunting.  He chronicled the Paris glitterati in the 1920s and was, as well, a prolific illustrator.  He started politically as an anarchist and moved right.  He took part in an ill-advised visit to Germany during the war, which tarnished his reputation.

The second exhibit was a huge retrospective of the work of General Idea.  Lots of familiar pieces and some new work.   Kudos for Canada!

A long walk home, passing a plaque commemorating the Marshall plan at the Talleyrand Hotel on Rue Rivoli and then another walk to the Paris Opera house where we saw two pieces by the Ballet de L’Opéra, choreographed by Mats Ek, a Swedish choreographer, born in 1945.

The first piece entitled La Maison de Bernarda was based on a play by Federico Garcia Lorca  (La Casa de Bernarda Alba in Spanish).  Garcia Lorca wrote his play in 1936, just two months before he was murdered by the fascists in Spain.  The play is about the oppression of women and the stifling role of religion in Andalusia.  The dance piece transforms Garcia Lorca's matriarch into a man.  It was beautifully danced.  The second piece was entitled Une Sorte de.... and was a more abstract dance-about dreams and relationships.   It was incredible sitting in the loges on the premiere level, looking up at the ceiling painted by Marc Chagall in 1964.  We stopped for some Japanese food on the way home.  Another beautiful day in Paris.

Dancers taking a bow in La Maison de Bernarda

Alain in the loge at the Ballet, with his new scarf